I found enabling parental control and controlling parental control are two different things. I suffered my first set-back last weekend when my husband and I tried to stream the first episode of "House of Cards" on Netflix. After I selected the episode I got the message “This title cannot be played as it exceeds the parental level set for your account.” It appears I outsmarted myself when I found and set the parental control on my Netflix instant viewing account. I selected the "Older Kids" level of maturity, which allows PG-13 movies and TV-14 television shows, since that's what we often watch as a family. I had not considered that shows such as "House of Cards" would be rated TV-MA. Once the error message popped up on my TV screen I had to run to my computer and re-set the parental control settings. This is Netflix's solution to temporarily overriding your selected parental control preference. It is then up to the parent to remember to re-set the parental control level afterward. In my opinion that is not a very parent-user-friendly system.
Next I set out to explore the parental control options on my iPad. The default setting for the iPad disables restrictions. That's great if you're the only one using your iPad but my kids sometimes prefer my iPad to playing Minecraft on my laptop or using their iPod Touch or Nintendo DS. You can find the parental controls in the "Settings" app under the "General" menu and then under the "Restrictions" menu. If you decide to enable the Restrictions you will be asked to create and enter a passcode, which you should never divulge to your children. You can then choose which apps to allow (e.g., Safari, Facetime, iTunes) by setting them to "On" and which ones to disallow (e.g., deleting apps) by setting them to "Off". You can also set ratings levels for music, movies, TV, books, and apps. The most interesting setting to me was the one that disallows In-App Purchases (set it to "Off").
Once I figured out the iPad parental controls I thought I should set the parental controls on the boys' iPod Touches. The first problem I encountered is Johnny had password protected his iPod and I don't know the password. The second problem was he already set the parental controls on his iPod. That meant he created his own passcode to control the parental control. It also meant I had once again lost parental control. I had been foiled twice-over by a 10-year old!
My attempts at parental control haven't all been failures. I count Pandora as one place I've had success. The boys and I created several stations we like to listen to around the house and in the car. When I started my first Pandora station about one year ago I was shocked to learn the lyrics to the Nicki Minaj song, "Starships". I had no idea she was saying, "We're higher than a motherf****r" because I had always heard the song on the radio where the Federal Communications Commission requires the removal of profane language. I'm generally not in favor of censorship but I don't want to hear swear words when I'm listening to music with the boys. I discovered Pandora has an option for allowing or dis-allowing explicit lyrics. The only place to set your option is on the Pandora web site, as opposed to the app on your smartphone or iPad. When you log in to Pandora you click on your email address and select "Settings" from the pull-down menu. Under your basic account information you will find the "Explicit Content Filter". I set mine to "No. Do not allow explicit content." Now the boys and I can listen to Macklemore and Lewis's "Thrift Shop" and I don't have as much explaining to do. John knows the real words and likes to point this out to me but I don't think we need to hear the naughty words over an over again as we listen to the music and sing along.
My attempts at parental control haven't all been failures. I count Pandora as one place I've had success. The boys and I created several stations we like to listen to around the house and in the car. When I started my first Pandora station about one year ago I was shocked to learn the lyrics to the Nicki Minaj song, "Starships". I had no idea she was saying, "We're higher than a motherf****r" because I had always heard the song on the radio where the Federal Communications Commission requires the removal of profane language. I'm generally not in favor of censorship but I don't want to hear swear words when I'm listening to music with the boys. I discovered Pandora has an option for allowing or dis-allowing explicit lyrics. The only place to set your option is on the Pandora web site, as opposed to the app on your smartphone or iPad. When you log in to Pandora you click on your email address and select "Settings" from the pull-down menu. Under your basic account information you will find the "Explicit Content Filter". I set mine to "No. Do not allow explicit content." Now the boys and I can listen to Macklemore and Lewis's "Thrift Shop" and I don't have as much explaining to do. John knows the real words and likes to point this out to me but I don't think we need to hear the naughty words over an over again as we listen to the music and sing along.
I investigated Parental Control options for the Windows 7 operating system on my laptop computer. They are found in the Control Panel under User Accounts and Family Safety and then under Parental Controls. The Parental Controls can be customized for each individual user. The pre-installed options on my laptop include the ability to set time limits for when each user can use the computer. For example, you could only allow your child to use the computer between 3-5 PM on weekdays and 9-11 AM on weekends. You can also allow or block access to programs on your computer. For example, you could block your child from using the the internet by blocking access to the browser. I suppose this could be useful if your child is using the computer without supervision. There are additional Parental Controls that can be installed such as Web Filtering, which allows or blocks certain web sites, and Activity Reporting, which monitors the web sites and programs your child is using. I decided not to enable these features at the moment but it's good to know they're there in case problems arise in the future. However, if the power you have over your child's computer use gives you a sense of superiority keep in mind that Web Filtering and Activity Reporting can also be used by employers to restrict or monitor employee activities on work computers.
John's perspective
John set his own parental controls on his iPod Touch. He set Music & Podcasts to "Clean", Movies to "PG-13" and TV Shows to "TV-PG", Books to restrict "Explicit Sexual Content" and Apps to "12+". He said he did this because he doesn't want to see or hear inappropriate things. He doesn't know my Apple ID so if he wants to download an app he has to get my permission. We're currently debating the appropriateness of the "Kick the Buddy" app. John said he doesn't care if I want to monitor his web site usage or computer activity but at the same time he doesn't want me to restrict his usage and activity.
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